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The Morning Bell: Charters will double, but stay mostly local

Oklahoma City Thunder player Paul George and 45 4th-grade students from the Stanley Hupfeld Academy at Western Village practice fishing and casting at a âPG Casting Activityâ on the Oklahoma River on Monday, Nov. 13, 2017 in Oklahoma City, Okla. The event helped launch the Paul George Foundation outdoor initiative. Photo by Steve Sisney, The Oklahoman

"Mom and pop" charter schools are how some in education circles describe locally managed charters, the ones that aren't managed by a large national or regional organization, also called CMOs (charter management organizations).

Mom and pops dominate the charter school landscape in Oklahoma as nearly all are independently run by a local group. As the state prepares to use a $16 million federal grant to double the number of charter schools over the next several years, you should expect mom and pops to remain the local norm.

“I don't think the grant changes the game for CMOs at all,” said Brent Bushey, executive director of the Oklahoma Public Schools Resource Center, an Oklahoma City-based nonprofit that will oversee the charter grant disbursements. “In a lot of the conversations I've had with CMOs, they ask what is the per-pupil (funding amount) in Oklahoma and then the conversation doesn't continue.”

I wrote this week about why national charter groups are unlikely to come to Oklahoma in droves anytime soon - Hint, it's because the state pays so little per student.

--SCHOOL SETTLEMENTS: School districts across Oklahoma, including Oklahoma City Public Schools, could recoup as much as $100 million or more in state aid payments miscalculated for 22 years if a lawsuit is settled, The Oklahoman has learned.

School boards in Oklahoma City and Enid were scheduled to meet behind closed doors Monday night to consider settling a lawsuit filed against the state Education Department and others on behalf of four school districts in September 2016.

"The only thing I can tell you is we're discussing the case tonight," said Brandon Carey, general counsel for the Oklahoma City district.

--ELECTION DAY: It's election day in Oklahoma and several school districts are holding bond votes, including Lawton Public Schools, where a nearly $100 million bond proposal would include a new middle school.

--Bixby police have been investigating a possible rape by instrumentation of a juvenile by four other juveniles, reports the Tulsa World. The location of the reported offense at a high school football team event corresponds to the home address of Bixby Superintendent Kyle Wood.

Acting on multiple tips, the Tulsa World had twice in the previous two weeks submitted requests to the Bixby Police Department under the Oklahoma Open Records Act for any report of an assault on a student.

--TECH IN SCHOOL: At least 14 Oklahoma school districts last year offered a technology device to every student from kindergarten to 12th grade, for a combined enrollment of 19,860 across the state, or less than three percent of the state's total public school student population.

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The districts include the 8,000-student Enid school system that provides Chromebooks and iPads, to the 85-student Hanna school district, where each student receives either an android device or laptop.

You can read more about the push to get technology in Oklahoma schools here.

Oklahoma City Thunder player Paul George and 45 4th-grade students from the Stanley Hupfeld Academy at Western Village practice fishing and casting at a âPG Casting Activityâ on the Oklahoma River on Monday, Nov. 13, 2017 in Oklahoma City, Okla. The event helped launch the Paul George Foundation outdoor initiative. Photo by Steve Sisney, The Oklahoman

Ben Felder

Ben Felder is an investigative reporter for The Oklahoman. A native of Kansas City, Ben has lived in Oklahoma City since 2010 and covered politics, education and local government for the Oklahoma Gazette before joining The Oklahoman in 2016....
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